


The first meeting

by themerrymutants



Category: X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 11:04:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6326491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themerrymutants/pseuds/themerrymutants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SHIELD, fearing that there may be no other option for a feral mutant that has been in their care, bring in Charles Xavier to try and rehabilitate her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The first meeting

Enigma-37 wanted to be left alone. To be left to its own devices again. It didn’t like their poking and prodding, the men in lab coats who came to talk to it thinking that somehow there was a person still in there. There was no one in there anymore. It was a number, a weapon, there was nothing even resembling the girl it was before the Project. It was nothing but property.

How long had it been there? It couldn’t remember. It desperately wanted to remember but it couldn’t. It remembered its rescue, the pain of its newest wound (left shoulder to right inner thigh) as it tried to stand and walk out, the burn as it took the brunt of the pulse meant to kill it and their team before they could be freed. After that…..nothing. Some static but nothing else really.

It had woken up what control it had had over its powers were forgotten, shifting still came naturally to it, as if it had been born a shifter but its other powers didn’t. Its mind reading was uncontrolled and downright dangerous. One wrong twitch and people got hurt. It didn’t kill them, unless they tried to kill it first. So far though that hadn’t happened. They just poked, prodded, and tranquilized it for Lord knows what. It wanted out, it wanted to be safe, no more needles, no more pain. It was done with being a lab rat.

 _She’s going to kill him, but he needs to succeed. I don’t want to have to kill her._ The man who saved it thought. What was his name? It knew it, it knew that it knew it. Why couldn’t it remember? 

 _ ~~Helen~~ , Alt. enigma-37, age unknown, warning: subject is highly volatile and should be approached with extreme caution. _The stranger flipped through its file with growing unease but not the same fear as the men who came to it with their lab coats, needles, and doodles. The men who wanted to try and convince it that it was safe from the woman who had basically owned it for nearly 2 decades. Bullshit. It’d never be safe,  _She’d_ always be able to find it. 

The stranger, a man, hobbled in leaning heavily on a cane. His eyes widened, and cheeks flushed, as he looked it over. It was crouched, on all fours, on a chair (used more like a perch) that had been set opposite the one brought in for him. It hadn’t bothered to put on the robe that had been put in it's room while it was sleeping. Everything was covered, and clothes caught on its scales and hurt. It could have shifted into clothing but really couldn’t be bothered. If he didn’t like its appearance that was his problem. His eyes flickered to its most prominent scar, the raised one that went from its left shoulder to its right inner thigh, it could see the pity. It didn’t need pity, didn't want it either, at least if that was what it was. That’s what it usually was. Oh well.

He gave a false smile and a rehearsed greeting. Happy to meet it, like hell. No one was happy to meet the one who could ~~and has tried to~~ rip out people's throats with its teeth. 

“I  _am_ truly happy to meet you,” he said. “Go ahead, check for yourself.”

It narrowed her eyes at his offer, wary of the unusual permission to flip through his mind. People tried everything they could think of to keep it out. Including that one time when one of the lab coats came in with a tinfoil cap. It almost died laughing, internally of course, at the pathetic attempt to keep it out. Despite its suspicions it took his offer anyway and was surprised to find he was telling the truth.

It sent its feelings of confusion as both a statement and a question. So far it was stuck communicating through emotions and actions, something people almost never listened to.

“My name is Charles Xavier and I’m here to help you,” he explained. “What would you like me to call you?”

Charles, he was the first to actually give it his name rather than just launching into a speech about how it needed to pull itself back together again. it liked that. It didn’t like being told what to do and how to do it... and then he asked it for a name. It didn’t have one. Weapons didn’t need names, they just needed to work. It shook its head in response shifting nervously in its seat. 

“In that case I’m going to call you Helen, much better than a number.” It was the name on her file after all, plus it wasn't good for her to think of herself as a number.

It stiffened, giving him a look could burn through steel as it bared its teeth and snarled. To accentuate its point its sent him a warning jolt. It wouldn’t kill him, or really even harm him, however it _would_ get its point across: Helen was dead and didn’t deserve to be associated with a monster like it.

He appeared to be caught off guard by its reaction, good, but unlike the others he didn’t try to leave or press the panic button. He was calm.  _What?_

 _You’re not the only one with gifts._ He threw up a wall pushing into her mind, he didn't want to, he didn't like it, but he wasn't going to let her steamroll him either. _Do_ not _attack me again._

It froze sitting there still as stone. It had been a long time since someone had entered its mind and when someone had it wasn't pretty. But that was then, and this was now and he most certainly wasn't the one who'd last entered its mind. It’d never met anyone like itself outside the Project. Had he survived it too? It thought it was the only one who had. If he had survived did that mean that its team might have survived too? It hadn’t seen, or felt, her team in this facility and had to assume they didn’t make it. It wanted to believe they were alive but so far it had no reason to.

 _Can you talk?_ he asked. 

It shook its head desperately wishing it could somehow explain the problem.

_May I read your mind then? I promise it won't be as...invasive. At the moment I’m just at the surface, I can’t read anything other than vague emotion and-_

It nodded vigorously even in spite of his counter to its attack, it’d missed having someone in there with it. It’d had a hive mind with the rest of its team (four besides it) and the silence was so very unnerving. 

 _If you want me to leave something alone, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’ll move on to somewhere else,_  he said. _Where would you like to begin?_

This man was different. He didn’t treat it like an animal, or a thing. it both liked, and was confused by, this. But it’d give him a chance. At least for now. 


End file.
